Oncor Crews Leaving To Restore Isaac Power Outages

NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Some 600,000 households and businesses are without power because of then Hurricane, now Tropical Storm Isaac. To help those in need North Texas Oncor crews are stepping up to assist folks in Louisiana.

Dozens of North Texas workers will leave for central Louisiana on Thursday.

“We’ll be sending about 100 of our crew members to central Louisiana, the Alexandria/Pineville area, early in the morning and they will be deployed there to help our sister utility in that area restore as much power as quickly and as safely as they can,” Oncor spokesperson Kris Spears explained.

Given that each storm is different and damage can vary from block-to-block, workers aren’t sure what they’ll find once they arrive in Louisiana, but Spears said they have clear direction on what to do when they ‘hit the ground’.

“Our crews are really focused, initially on the safety aspect of it and trying to make sure that all residents in the area, and business owners are safe from any downed power line or pole and we can get that service back up as quickly and as safely as we can.”

North Texas Oncor crews will likely end up working in more rural areas and will be able to provide invaluable equipment and expertise.

“Our workers are highly-skilled and you know electricity is a dangerous area – you’re working with an active line each time,” Spears explained. “Our guys are very knowledgably in the aspect of storm restoration, they do so for our seven million Texans within Oncor service territory on a daily basis.”

Initially North Texas Oncor crews are prepared to be in Louisiana for a week, but Spears said if they are needed beyond that workers will rotate in and out of the area as needed.